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

by Andy Stanley

The small-group program is not an appendage; it is not a program we tacked onto an existing structure. The small group is part of our lifestyle. We think groups. We organize everything with groups in mind, and everything points to group life. In many ways, group life drives what we do—and do not do—as an organization.

The only numeric goal we have ever set for our ministry was in the area of small-group participation. Why? We really do believe that life change happens within the context of intentional relationships. And since our mission as a church centers on life change, we decided to lean the entire ministry in the direction of groups.

I think it is hypocritical for a pastor to champion something he isn’t willing to participate in himself.

Groups don’t really impact a local church until they become part of a church’s culture. And that begins with senior leadership.

The human being is in a state of perfect intimacy with God. Each word he and God speak with each other is filled with closeness and joy; he walks with God in the garden in the cool of the day. He is known and loved to the core of his being by his omniscient, love-filled Creator. Yet the word God uses to describe him is “alone.” And God says this aloneness is “not good.”

No substitute will fill this need in you for human relationship. Not money. Not achievement. Not busyness. Not books. Not even God Himself. Even though this man was in a state of sinless perfection, he was “alone.” And it was “not good.”

When we live in isolation, we can easily lose perspective on life. That’s because there is no objective voice calling us toward balance.

Sheep are never attacked in herds. Sheep are attacked when they become isolated from the rest of the flock.

If a person has learned to be intimate and honest with a few friends before they get married, they will have less reason to fear intimacy after they are married. Their track record for transparency will give them confidence as they enter into this new season of life.

Over time, a disconnected person becomes self-absorbed. He gives in to one of the fatal by-products of disconnection: self-centeredness. When that happens, life is lived and seen through a very narrow lens.

Living life alone does not accurately reflect the One whose image we bear.

Just as He exists in meaningful relationship, so are we to exist in this quality of relationship as well. The need for it is part of our genetic makeup. God is a relational being and He created His prized creations, you and me, with the need for significant relationship as well.