mgpcpastor's blog

Is your church infested by zombies?
In a post on the IXMarks blog Bobby Jamieson notes the problems that arise when small groups take on a life of their own.
How could ‘taking on a life of their own’ be problematic?
Well, if the group members are more invested in the small group than in the corporate life of the church; or,
if they’re spending more time maintaining the operating structure of the group than seeking to achieve its desired purposes; or,
probably worst of all, if they’re only continuing to be part of the small group because they don’t want to see it fold;
then the group has taken on a life of its own.
Not really life as we know it.
More like zombies, the living dead.
Lurching around a local church.
And that’s a problem.
Jamieson:

Many pastors could tell similar stories. Whether the programs are numerically thriving or taking on water, they can have a tendency to become ends in themselves, rather than means to an end. And when programs become ends in themselves, they’re actually counterproductive to real ministry. They have the appearance of ministry but lack its power. They look impressive, but they’re not helping non-Christians come to know Christ or Christians come to know him and obey him better.

To adopt a biblical phrase the people are serving the group structure, rather than the group structure serving the people.
I chair meetings where group members are implicitly asking one another ‘How can we maintain this structure for another year?’
They usually talk about getting new members so their responsibilities can be shared.
They also usually won’t countenance changed meeting times, different meeting structures or any particularly radical changes.
Which may be odd, because most small groups started as a radical change solution to a perceived deficiency or lack in an existing small group structure.
Suggest to them that perhaps the group has achieved its stated purpose or that it can be altered to better serve the needs of the current membership and they’ll look at you as if you’re speaking gibberish.
They don’t want to change, they just want your brains.

Although it doesn’t have to be this way, one of the dangers of programs is that they can make it seem like evangelism or discipleship only occurs within the program. But evangelism and discipleship are things that, in one way or another, all of us should be doing on a regular basis. So make that your plumb line for evaluating programs—and everything else in the corporate life of your church.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with small groups, they are a helpful supplement to corporate church worship and fellowship and can even be gateways for people to enter the corporate worship and fellowship life of the church.
But they are a poor and inadequate substitute for the corporate church, and for holistic ministry.
Jamieson contends that a culture committed to Christian growth and Gospel sharing will enable small groups and programs to stay on track and vital.

What then does it mean to be a post-program church? For now I’ll simply make one vision-level suggestion: instead of running programs, cultivate a culture. Specifically, nurture a culture of evangelism and discipleship.
Culture is a notoriously slippery concept to define because it’s so pervasive and all-encompassing. Culture is to humans what water is to a fish. We hardly notice it because it’s all around us. In this way, culture defines what’s normal. And my point here is simply that pastors should preach and teach and lead in such a way that evangelism and discipleship become normal parts of every single church member’s life. That’s the goal to aim at, anyway.
The New Testament instructs every Christian to make disciples (Matt. 28:19). It teaches that the church grows as every single member contributes to the body’s development (Eph. 4:11-16).

Unlike the mythical creatures, church zombies can know life again if they embrace gospel sharing and discipling as key components of their existence.