Externally Focused Groups

Why your group won’t thrive if community is your goal

by Dan Lentz

I was reading the new issue of Rev magazine recently. The issue is titled, “Moving Small Groups Out of their Box.” Several articles focus on the nuts and bolts of taking your small group to the people rather than asking people to your small group.

One insightful reminder for me was that in small groups, the idea of "community" should not be our goal, but only a by product of missionally oriented relationships. When we make community our goal, we drift towards an inward-focus—usually to the exclusion of people outside the group. In fact, what many churches make the focus of small-group ministry (community) can actually become the thing that stifles it!

When I chat with people about the process of becoming a more externally focused house church (or small group), they often ask how they can measure their progress in loving and ministering to those outside the walls of their church (or group). A practical way of thinking about this was proposed by Eric Swanson in Leadership Network Advance. He boils external focus down into two measurements:

--How often do you engage with people outside your group?
--How deep do you go with them when you engage them?

Here’s an excerpt from Eric's article:

“We have identified two primary variables for tracking the effectiveness of externally focused people and congregations that change a community and grow one's own soul: Depth of engagement and frequency of engagement…As helpful as (giving) money and (volunteering for) projects can be, lives are most likely to be changed when people engage with people. People feel their worth only when they are affirmed by other people. Good deeds can be done from afar, but good news can only be shared up close. Love is a shared experience…As we engage with other people, God may use us to change the ending of their story.”

To get some ideas of how you might engage people, try checking out the newest SmallGroups.com training download: “Planning a Group Service Project.” Remember, engaging in relationships with frequency and depth is vitally important, but developing those relationships both with brothers and sisters in Christ and with the lost world is what produces true community.