What is Essential

I recently was asked to renew the small groups in our church congregation.  Our small groups were started back in 2005/2006.  Simply put, they were planted, given very little initial direction, and then left to fend for themselves.  Some have done well, others have waxed and waned, some have withered altogether.  It was time to step up and provide some direction to reorient the groups to the same general direction, to review the spiritual foundation of the groups, and to empower them to really do the work entrusted to them.  That is a long introduction to a very simple concept that formed the heart of what I tried to put into the training.  The whole purpose of the small groups, indeed the church as a whole, is not to make sure that we are well founded in doctrine, knowing what we believe, being able to defend it, cataloging and indexing it for ready use.  It is also not to make sure that we live or behave a certain way, that we do some things consistently and avoid other things altogether.  Right belief and right praxis do not create the type of living fellowship that the human soul earnestly seeks for.    But Jesus does.  And that is the point I tried to get across.  As the old hymn encourages, "tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and His love."  Who is this Jesus, what did He do, what did He say, what example did He leave behind, what was He like.  Too much of our preaching is from the Old Testament law, or from the New Testament doctrinal epistles, too little from the gospels.  The call of the disciple has never been to clean up your act, or to learn this tome of dogma; it has always been, and will remain the call to follow Jesus.  Enough said, time to stop talking about it, time to do it.