Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This week's message is from Brian Morrissey, ACC's Worship & Small Groups Minister.

Say this with me, when you learn and grow (when you learn and grow) through community based Small Groups, (through community based Small Groups) you grow with God (you grow with God) and with others (and with others).

Say it again, when you learn and grow (when you learn and grow) through community based Small Groups, (through community based Small Groups) you grow with God (you grow with God) and with others (and with others).

Community happens. It is intentional. God designed it to be that way. In Acts chapter 2, we discover the birth of the Church and after the Holy Spirit shows up and breathes life, grace, and repentance into the early group of believers, we discover a timeless concept: community. Read through Acts 2:42-47 with me this morning.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-47, NIV)

Have you ever been ignored? I’m not talking about the person who accidentally doesn’t notice you, but I’m talking about blatant ignorance. I used to work in the service department for an auto dealership and having worked closely with the guys who write up your service tickets, I had a full glimpse into what ignorance was all about.

If they so much as saw an older vehicle drive up to the service bay, they would purposefully pick up a phone, punch in a number and then talk out loud to the operator who was telling them “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again.” They completely ignored people who drove the older vehicle because they new that the likelihood of getting any money out of those people was almost zero. They would sometimes flip coins with each other to see who would actually go out and write up the ticket.

However, if someone drove up in a newer vehicle, they knew their commission would be much higher and they would race each other to see who would get to the vehicle first.

We get ignored all the time as people and most of the time it’s on purpose. We do it is a culture everyday. My guess is that you ignored someone this morning. I’ll bet the majority of you saw someone this morning who you didn’t want to talk to because of the way they dress or how they act, or their social status or their breath just plains reeks, and so you went out of your way to just avoid them.

I was down at Great American Ballpark a few weeks ago and saw one of the many homeless men sitting outside the park with a sign that simply read: Homeless, need money. God Bless. As soon as I saw him, my mind immediately judged him and said, “oh, he just wants money to buy alcohol” and so I ignored him. I just walked on by.

We ignore people all the time, and some of the time, that’s on purpose, but it’s not the way God designed it to be. I went to college eight hours away from my home and I knew no one. None of my friends went to the college I went to and I had no sense of community when I first arrived at college, even though I had a roommate and a church to attend. For the first few months, until I began to develop some friends, I felt utterly alone, and I think that’s exactly why God designed the church, because we were never meant to be ignored and we were never meant to be alone. That’s why we place such a high value on the church being a community. That’s why we want you to connect and grow and serve with each other – because we are not meant to be alone.

Jesus knew this better than anyone. Last week, Mike talked about how Jesus formed the first small group where he led and had 12 followers. He also talked last week about how life change best happens in a small group when we begin to follow where God is leading us so that we can let God transform us into the person he created us to be. If you haven’t listened to the message yet, I encourage you to listen to the podcast or check it out on our website.

But the point of today is that Jesus wanted us to grow in community. When Jesus was asked what the greatest Law in the Old Testament was, he responded with this: “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NLT)

Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor the same way. So, who is my neighbor? Is it the weird guy that lives next door that mows his lawn at 7 in the morning and throws block parties ‘til 3 am? Yes. Is it the lady with the crazy piercings and tattoos behind the counter at the coffee shop? Yes. Is it the guy that smells terrible sitting two rows behind me right now? Yes. Is it the downtrodden homeless man I passed at the ballpark a few weeks ago and ignored? Yes. Everyone else on this planet that is breathing air besides you is considered your neighbor and is exactly who Jesus meant by this passage of scripture.

So how can I love them? Simple, be Jesus to them. Live out the example of what he taught and how he lived to them. Extend them grace. Give them truth. Show them Godliness. Be Jesus to them.

The best way to do that is to connect with them. You do that everyday by virtue of where you live, where you work, and where you socialize. At ACC, the place that happens the best is right here, in the context of our Sunday Morning Services. We connect with God through worship and we connect with others through our shared experiences. So how do we grow with God and with others? It’s interesting, because the formula for growth has been laid out beautifully by Luke in the book of Acts. Re read Acts 2:42-47 with me:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-47, NIV)

Let’s go back and unpack this passage a little bit and begin to discover how God wants us to grow and what this means for us in our current vision of Small Groups.

The first place Luke starts is with the words in verse “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching” (Acts 2:42, NIV). I had a teacher for Advanced English my junior year of high school named Ms. Terranova.

The first day of class, I walked in, found my seat and she began class by scraping her fingernails across the chalkboard and informing us that she would be running her class like a College course and if we wanted to keep up, we should devote ourselves to her teaching. I did and still managed to only scrape a C- in her class. But I can’t imagine the result that would have happened if I hadn’t devoted myself to learning what she was instructing. The first way we grow with others in community according to the model Luke shows us, is by learning. It has to start there.

What person just ties their shoes unless they’ve learned it first? What person just straps on leotards and dances ballet unless they’ve learned it first? What person goes out and does their job proficiently unless they’ve learned it first? The point is you can’t. You have to learn how to do something before you can be good at it. I’m glad you weren’t with me the first time I learned to play racquetball. My friend took me into this little white room and proceeded to chase me around the room with a blue blur of a ball for the next half hour before I realized I could hit it back with my racquet. He didn’t teach me how to play at first and because I didn’t learn how to play, I didn’t know what to do. I had to learn the skill of the game before I could grow as a player.

We have to learn the teaching that’s in this book before we can grow. And the other key in that passage is the word “devote”. You can’t just watch someone tie their shoes and instantly know what to do. You have to practice at it. You have to devote yourself to it. I had to devote myself to practicing racquetball before I could chase that ball around the angles of the room. You can’t just read the Bible for information and say, “wow, that’s a good book.” You have to devote yourself to reading it and not just be informed, but be transformed by what you read.

So, if the first step toward growing with others is learning, then the next logical step is fellowship: Having things in common with others and living out life on a social level.

We have a deficiency of social space in our culture today. In his book The Search to Belong, Joseph Myers points out that there are four physical spaces where we exist and live in relationship with other people.

The first is our Public Space which is comprised of 20 or more people. In the Public space, there is usually about 12 feet of distance between each person and even when there is not 12 feet, there is little to no personal interaction. People usually don’t know the names of those around them and in a learning environment, there is a teacher/lecturer who communicates to the group as a whole. Some examples may include Church, the mall, a concert, or a sporting event.

Next we have the Social Space which is comprised of 5-20 people. There is usually 4-12 feet of distance between people and everyone will know your name, although they might not know your personal business. In the social space, you don’t need a teacher, but you will need a leader or a facilitator. This is the most conducive environment for getting to know new people. Some examples can include the break room at work or school, a fun event at church, hanging out with the girls, or your buddies.

The third physical space is called Personal Space and is comprised of 2-5 people. The space between people is usually 4 feet to 18 inches and everyone in your personal space knows more than your name, they know details about your life. Personal spaces are usually filled with our friends, or our peers and no leader or teacher is necessary. We tend to view our personal space as private space and outsiders are not welcome. Some examples include best friends on a park bench, small coffee tables, personal conversations you wouldn’t want anyone to hear.

The last space is what’s known as Intimate Space and only includes 1 other person besides yourself. The space between the two individuals is less than 18 inches (stick with me fellas). People in your intimate space know more than your name and details, they know your secrets. They know you better than anyone else in the world.

While personal space involves good friends, intimate space involves someone you consider as “family.” Some examples of intimate space are a romantic getaway, a private dinner, or a space geared toward personal communication.

Now, we grow spiritually and connect with others in all four of these physical spaces. The public space is the least intimate space, but as Mike mentioned last week, we all grow through the teaching of God’s Word at church. We also identify with each other and connect during our worship times together. All four spaces – even the least intimate – have tremendous value for our spiritual growth and relationships.

We also need relationships in all four spaces. The goal is not to have balance, but to have harmony between the four spaces. For example, you will naturally have more people in your social space than in your intimate space. And that’s as it should be.

The key to this is to have people in all four spaces. We are not healthy relationally if we are lacking connections in one or more of the spaces. Also, no one space is more important than the others. We need all four to grow and to be spiritually healthy.

Think about it, which is worse? Someone who is locked away in a cabin with only one person to talk to (even if that person is an intimate relationship?), or someone who is always around a crowd of people but has no friends or family to share intimately with? Both are equally unhealthy because God created us to need various kinds of relationships to survive and grow.

The last truth about these spaces is that they are interrelated and connected together. Public spaces give us the opportunity to identify those people we’ll invite into our social space. In our social space, we identify our closest friends with whom we’ll spend time in the personal space. And in either our social space or our personal space, we’ll find those special relationships that become intimate.

We have a deficit of social space. Americans today have a deficit of social space. We don’t see this trend in high school or college, but after graduation, we have a hard time finding safe social spaces where we can meet together with 5-20 peers. Americans today value privacy, safety, and convenience and stay locked behind many layers of security in their homes, impenetrable to neighbors or passersby.

Our Small Groups are designed to specifically target that deficit of social space. In order to grow, we have to devote ourselves to learning, but we also have to have fellowship. Luke writes in Acts 2:42 - "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42, NIV)

He defines fellowship for us – Breaking of bread and prayer. We have purposefully crafted our Small Groups around both of those principles. Most of our groups will have some sort of a snack or coffee/dessert with them and each group will end with a time for us to pray for each other. Through this, we fellowship with each other.

So, growing with others takes learning and fellowship, and it also takes serving. Look at verses 44 & 45 of Acts 2. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45, NIV)

Together, they served. Together, they had everything in common. Together they sold their possessions and goods and together they were generous. That’s the church. That’s how you grow. That’s how you show Jesus to a community that desperately needs his love. And that’s another intentional element we’ve built into our Small Groups.

As a part of each group, we have asked that your group collectively participates in a mission project once during your semester. This could include feeding homeless people at a shelter, or having a yard sale and donating the proceeds to the Grace and Mercy Help Center, or it could include visiting the elderly in nursing homes. Whatever it is, we want our Small Groups to learn, fellowship and then take that to the community by serving it and being the church. Being Jesus to a world that needs him.

This past semester, we had a woman in our church that was attempting to sell her home and she needed some yard work done. One of our facilitators caught word of that and I want you to hear this story from the woman’s own words.

"Something you should know.....

Last Wednesday at our small group, I said that I had a need, if anyone would be able to help me, I'd really appreciate it. I'm having no luck selling my house and really need to get it sold. Plus I have an open house coming up this Sunday and I just needed someone to bring me a load of mulch, that the mulch place was about 3 miles from my house, and I'd give whoever had a truck gas money; I just don't have access to a truck, so.....

Josh Young said he had a truck and he'd be able to bring me some mulch. He was going to get the mulch by his house Friday night and drop it at my house Saturday morning. So I got up Saturday morning, didn't shower, put on my rattiest yardwork clothes, and Logan and I headed outside to work on the fence before Josh came. I hear tires on the gravel road, and look back and here comes a whole caravan of trucks and cars!!! Eleven people came, including four wives. All the men had all the mulch laid in the front yard, back yard, all the weed whacking done around the fence-line, trees, flower beds, and pond -- in under four hours! Lisa Pyle brought 4 dozen donuts, milk and juice and fed everyone after they finished the front. Plus they all chipped in on the mulch so I didn't have to pay for it. After everything was done, Yance led us in prayer for the sale of my house and blessings on my family. It makes me tear up just thinking about the hearts of these new friends in Christ. I'll tell you, I have never been a part of a church that is this definition of "church". I feel so incredibly blessed, and this all so strongly confirms that God is in control, even after all the mess over the last several years. He rescued me from that and had all these people waiting with open arms. Boo, hoo, I am such a wuss, but a happy, grateful and blessed one :-) So that's my church story.

I know you know the hearts of your congregation, but I wanted you to know that they are church of action, and I am so blessed to be a part of it. Josh and Marie and I were talking after everyone left. Josh told me that he called people, expecting he'd have 1-2 people who could come, but then everyone said YES! He also me he had everyone meet at the church parking lot up the road from me, so they could all come down the drive like in Extreme Home Makeover :-D What a great bunch!"

Church, that is why our Small Groups exist. That is why we place such a high value on service. Not just because it is the Biblical model for how the Church should be, but because it really does facilitate growth with others in community. This group met a need. They saw the need and together they rose to meet that need.

Through our learning, through our fellowship, we can begin to target needs in our community so that we can begin to serve. In Acts 2:45, the church gave to anyone as he had need. Not just those in their circle of friends; not just those who were in their social sphere, but to anyone. That means your weird next door neighbor. That means the tattooed and pierced girl at the coffeeshop. That means the smelly guy two rows behind you, and that means the homeless guy down by the Ballpark. Church, we are called to serve, and in order to grow with others in community, we have to do that. We have to be Jesus to the world.

And why do we do all of this? Is it all just so that we can grow and be Jesus to the world? For the answer to that, look one last time this morning to Acts 2. verse 47 says this: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47, NIV) God will begin to grow our Church when we grow together. Growth will not happen until we become the Church that God wants us to be. Growth will not happen until we get off our seats and get in the game and take some ownership over our faith and how we live it out. Growth will not happen until we devote ourselves to learn, fellowship, and serve.

Say it again with me, when you learn and grow (when you learn and grow) through community based Small Groups, (through community based Small Groups) you grow with God (you grow with God) and with others (and with others).

Church, together we rise. We cannot stand alone. I’ll close with this: Aesop tells a story of Four oxen in which a Lion used to prowl about a field in which the Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell to quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. United we stand, divided we fall.

In the book of 1 Peter, the Apostle says that “your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1Peter 5:8, NIV) Church if we don’t connect, grow, and serve with each other, we will fall. That’s why we take our vision so seriously. That’s why we take our Small Groups so seriously. It’s because we as leaders see what our church could do in this community if we were to rise against the enemy in the name of love for what the Bible calls “the least of these.”

So, on your way out today, sign-up for one of our Small Groups. Don’t pass them up with the excuse that you don’t have time for it. You will make time for something if you feel like it’s that important. So if you’re saying, I don’t have time, you’re saying that Church isn’t important. You’re saying that Jesus’ love for others isn’t important. Don’t do that. Sign-up and grow.

We have six exciting and diverse groups for you to choose from. Pick one. Pick one and get involved and don’t look back. Let’s be the church to this community and let’s grow with God and with others.

Brian Morrissey

Tags: Church fellowship growing learning serving Small Groups vision