We had never met them before.  It was Thursday night and Lara and I anxiously looked forward to how it would go.  Our new small group (life group or community group) was starting in fifteen minutes and I had absolutely no idea who these twelve people were.

Then they started showing up.

As they walked up to the doorway to come in, I wondered if we would have “chosen” them out of a crowd to be friends with.

I concluded that the ball was already in motion and that it was too late to pretend to have a horrible cough.

We were stuck.  Or so it seemed for at least the next several weeks.  I figured it was time to buck up and see how this thing goes tonight.

After all, there has to be someone with whom we might connect with right?

This small group stuff is just another fancy name for Bible Study anyway right?

These people probably won’t even get in to this and stick around for very long. 

Well.  At least we can say that we had tried.

So we began, “Hi everyone, my name is Dan and this is my wife Lara ….”

That was September of 2004.

Fast-forward to October 2006.

We were being sent to Maryland to do ministry with more people who we had never met.  This was the last day we would be together like this.  It was a going away party, and over 100 people had come by our friend’s house throughout the day and early evening to encourage us and say “so long, for now”.  They were friends and family who loved God and loved us.  Many of them we had known for many years, if not all or most of our lives.

And then there were twelve people who we had known for only 25 months.  Our small group.

Twelve people with whom we had done life with.  Twelve people that we experienced true “community” with.  Twelve people that we had grown to love deeply and intimately.  We had laughed together.  We had cried together.  We had laid ourselves bare before the Lord together.

God had done a work in each of us, far surpassing any fathomable expectation we had ever had.  It was life-change.  Community.  Authenticity.  Vulnerability.  Spiritual Growth.  Accountability.

It was God speaking into each of our lives through other people.  It was God revealing Himself to us through other people.

Sure we had spent time studying God’s Word.  But it was so much more.  It was a community of people experiencing what the first church experienced.  Worship.  Ministry.  Evangelism.  Fellowship.  Discipleship.  We were intentional in “being” the church.  We were intentional in “doing” life together.

And we were blessed beyond comprehension.

In the local church, we need to be intentional.  I am convinced that we are all called to begin and continue the transformation of becoming a church of small groups; not a church with small groups as another program.

God doesn't’t want another program in His church.  He wants transformed lives.  He wants life-change.  He wants people to do life together with Himself and other people.

Won’t you join me on the journey of doing life together?  “My name is Dan, and this is my wife Lara …”