One of the big draws to a small group is proximity. We yearn for community and closeness with one another. Community is the key to a successful small group; as small group leaders we call it “living life together.”  In my ministry, I urge our facilitators to lead their groups to live out community in four basic areas:

1. Build Community within the group…Build a close-knit group and serve one another.
2. Struggle with God’s Word Together…Grow in Christ by wrestling through God’s Word as a group.
3. Serve everyone…Serve the Body and local community together.
4. Reach those who are far from God…Leverage the small group to bring others to Christ.

When it comes to leveraging the small group to bring others to Christ, the top expectation I have is that at some point in the life of the group they will reproduce themselves. Some churches call it splitting. That is a very unfortunate use of the English language to describe something that should be pounding in the chests of every follower of Christ, not eliciting mental pictures of ripping off a sticky band-aid. Others call it birthing. Birthing is a little better, yet there are some women out there who went through that once and that was enough! I like to use the terminology of planting.  

In Luke 13:18-19, Jesus was teaching the people a parable. He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?  It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”  Just like the man in the story, small groups have a seed to plant. Our small groups have seeds that have been given to them by God to grow into trees for the Kingdom of God. The question every group has to ask is, are we willing to give community away as a gift by sacrificing some of our closeness within our current group?

I was sitting at lunch with one of my small group facilitators one afternoon when I posed this question, “Have you ever thought of what the spiritual legacy of your group will be?” He looked at me puzzled.  I challenged him with the task of reproducing his group through the process of planting a new group. What if his group scattered their seed in the fertile soil of the lives of those not yet experiencing life-changing community? I used the analogy of a family tree. What if every small group had a spiritual legacy? What if every small group could look around them at the groups that were planted through their commitment to building community? 

One of the most exciting propositions going on in the church today is in the area of church planting. There are established churches all over the world that are sacrificing what they have for what God can do in a place that needs to hear about the love of Christ. I am struggling with the idea that just maybe God has called us all to be planters. Jesus used agricultural word pictures all over the place in the New Testament. The Kingdom is a seed. Discipleship is a seed. Community is a seed. Seeds don’t grow in the package; they grow in the fertile soil of the heart and have to be planted by planters. What can our small groups sacrifice in order to plant a new living organism of community? Who might be reached if we give something up for the sake of someone else?

When people experience the power of true Christian community - where the focus is not on what they can get out of it, but what God can do through it - groups start yearning to plant community around them.  Deep down, people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. All they need is a vision of what God will do through their faithfulness.