Tension - Task or Relationship?

So, what’s the point of a group experience? Is it to get together with a bunch of Christians and get into a Bible study? Some would certainly say “Yes” to that. But others would say that it’s all about fellowship. “We get enough Bible teaching. We just want to make some friends who are Christian.” Yeah, as I blogged two weeks ago, friendship has a vital role in the group experience. Is that it? Is that all there is to group life? Isn’t that something you can get in a good ABF?

Someone told me once that group is all about getting Christians out of the church. I like that, but I’d take it one step further. Group is about getting Christians to be Christian outside the church. A great example is the Serving emphasis that our groups are going thru right now. When I say that the Christian life is characterized by servanthood and that every Christian should serve, what do you think? The nursery? Children/Youth Ministry? Greeters or Ushers? Do Christians serve anyone besides their own? (Whoops, slipping into my next post. Focus, Steve!)

I had only been at Grace for six months and into our group experiment five when a fellow came to me and said, “I just realized that I am serving. Every week, I am serving the people in my group!” Welcome to St. Paul’s picture of the church! Members of a body, each fulfilling his or her designed role, not working alone, but connected one to the others and moving in harmony toward a common goal.

The church isn’t simply intended to exist. She is supposed to engage in the work of the Kingdom. God doesn’t leave us here after rescuing us because we still need to get our act together before He can take us home. He can and will do that in an instant. It’s called “glorification.” He leaves us here to be His agents in the world, His hands, His feet, His voice.

OK, here’s the really cool part about how God has put this whole plan together. When we get out of the pew and start doing for Him, together, as He intends, that is when we really grow as Christians. Sure, we need to spend time in Bible study. The Word is where we learn who God is, who we are in relation to Him, and what He has planned for us. But in His Word we learn that our lives are supposed to be about love, which means we aren’t to live them alone. And it’s in the living out life in light of this truth that we are truly faithful. It’s also where we are transformed to be made in His likeness.

You see, we wander astray when we focus too much on any one part of the life that the Lord has planned for us. We must study His Word, we must develop deep relational bonds, and we must be obedient to all He has commanded. And it’s only when we engage in all of these areas that we become what He expects of us. I recently heard it put this way: we are to be about being and doing. We cannot engage in one and not the other and still be found faithful.