Creating Community, Revised & Updated Edition: Five Keys to Building a Thriving Small Group Culture

by Andy Stanley

“I have never known anyone … who was isolated, lonely, unconnected, had no deep relationships—yet had a meaningful and joy-filled life.”

strategy is to isolate us so he can attack and destroy us. Sheep are never attacked in herds. Sheep are attacked when they become isolated from the rest of the flock.

People who fear intimacy think that if others really get to know them, they won’t like them.

I believe one of God’s biggest dreams for us is authentic community—the kind of meaningful relationships that are best characterized by oneness with Him and with one another.

Jesus is saying that the credibility of His life and message in the eyes of unbelievers is dependent upon the way we as His followers relate with one another. Somehow their belief and our behavior are connected. It’s as if Jesus is saying that unbelievers are just waiting to believe, but the question is, Will they see us relating in this magnetic, irresistible way?

That is what God has called the church to be about: creating environments where authentic community can take place. Building relational, transforming communities where people are experiencing oneness with God and oneness with one another. Communities that are so satisfying, so unique, and so compelling that they create thirst in a watching world.

Jesus made it clear that our mission is to make disciples. Jesus was saying that as we go through the normal stuff of life—as we go to work, interact with our friends, and do all the things we normally do—our purpose is to relationally connect with people in such a way that it encourages them to follow Christ.

Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Over the years I have noticed that some people seem to equate spiritual growth with the accomplishment of a process or plan. They seem to believe that mature Christ-followers are those who have endured the equivalent of spiritual boot camp. If you have successfully undergone a regimen of classes, seminars, and prescribed activities, you are perceived as mature. If you finish the list, you have arrived. You are discipled. Project completed. This perspective assumes that spiritual maturity comes at a point in time—namely, when the process or curriculum has been completed.

This passage implies that spiritual growth is a process. Maturity is measured by demonstrative growth in our love for God and for others. It is not a completed program or the acquisition of a skill, but a continual expression of love in our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with one another.

We want them to grow in their intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders.

So we believe one of the marks of a maturing believer is that they are pursuing influence with those outside the faith.