Like Family

I recently visited a Home Team that needed a little support in navigating change from one group into two. The Leader needed to move the meeting day due to work and one of the other women really wanted to start leading a group in her home. Everything went very smooth, some of the women in the group lived closer to the new leader and some found that changing the day was more convenient for them. It wasn’t what happened in the group meeting that amazed me it was what happened after the meeting was over.

As the women in the group collected children and bags they started talking about birthdays, then some of them brought out their pocket calendars and started discussing dates. One was having a party this week so the other moved her party to the next week, they talked about when they were taking their trip together, they were planning out the months to come and scheduling life around each other. This was so unusual to me. I did this with my sister and sister-in-laws but never with friends, they had become like sisters. This group had become a family.

Suddenly it hit me the small groups in our church had become so much more then social groups or Bible studies they had become families. This family was planning life together, not just for themselves but for their own individual families. Their husbands are sharing life together, their children are becoming friends and this family just seems to go on affecting others.

I know that small group ministry can be a challenge sometimes, but when we can see how God is connecting people into His family and changing lives, it is well worth the work.