Vision Glorious

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

When you begin to ask specific why? questions, there will be a thirst that will come over your life that drives you to desire, to know,  and to obtain all of the promises the Lord has for His Church. This is a journey (a deep yearning of quality men and women) for "Complete Church."

It is here that I need to introduce a tension-point, or more accurately, a philosophical divide. The Western Church¹ is affixiated with business models, marketing, forms, and programs. Reduced to its naked equation, the magical and hollow formula is hot programs + best location + big money = "successful" results. 

The tension begins when I say that God’s heartbeat isn’t to fill those program-boxes — it’s to fill people.² The Lord wants to save His people from their sin and pour true shalom into their lives (2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:20). God’s desire is for Jesus to have preeminence in His Church ( Col. 1:17-19). The Father wants His children to grow to maturity and bear much fruit that will abide in Him to multiply again and again ( John 15:8). All of this and more is available to the believer because God’s heartbeat is to build Himself a dwelling place among His people ~ Ephesians 2:21-22.

Small groups have to start here. They are the small congregations of God. Small groups are Church because the same Christ indwells both large and small gatherings of His people. Again, this is because God wants to fill people that He has made acceptable to Himself. Therefore, the small group can provide the best setting for the life of Jesus Christ to be revealed through His Christ-ones. A main reason for this is because small groups are not task-oriented, but rather, Bible-believer oriented. They can accomplish many tasks, but more importantly, the small groups can help contour disciples to the heartbeat of God = total relationship (da’at Elohim — to know God and be known by Him).

In the next part, we’ll explore more of the Father’s heartbeat through biblical examples and promises. Until then - shalom among His people. 

1. and this is now spreading to many nations beyond the West (Europe and North America) as they "import" western Churchianity. [back]
2. Many men will agree with me here — in theory – but rarely in practice – because they’re so involved in holy turf-wars, orthodoxy tractor-pulls, and who’s-who dress-up conferences contests. Yes, I’m being nice here because I’d never actually want to talk about pride on a cozy blog like this. [back]

~ by Pastor Rob Krause

Often, when a writer or speaker approaches the subject of small groups they generate a fair amount of interest. Some guys are interested in small groups as if they were a novelty; the "all-new" approach. Other guys are caught in the mythological search for the quick-fix, magic-bullet program that will bring-in lots of people and make their Church "the place" where people want to stay. And there are some who have a genuine interest in knowing what small groups are all about because they sense deep in their spirits that "there’s gotta’ be something more out here to this community thing."¹

First Ask "Why?"

However, it’s at this point that I think most guys start to ask the wrong questions. The questions regularly start with "What are you doing… ?"  or  "How do you do this… ?"  These aren’t bad questions, but their timing is off. Instead of asking what or how, we need to first ask why?  The why questions will keep you thirsty after the core principles that will later bring healthy forms to fruition.

If you don’t ask why? on a regular basis, here is what will happen. You will begin to treat many of the rich promises throughout Scripture of what the Church can really be as cheap, try-on and cast-off programs. Instead of being guided by the Vision, you will hunger for gimmicks and begin to see people as numbers — numbers that build bigger buildings and bigger programs.²

Another important reason for the why? questions is that when the going gets tough and impatient people begin to criticize your biblical community-building efforts as not being fast enough, you need to know "the why" to what you’re doing or you’ll walk away from the Vision.

I spoke with a pastor from Florida once who said, "Boy, I’m sure glad to see small groups are working for you, we tried them out and they didn’t go anywhere after the first eight months — so we don’t do them anymore."  I felt really sad for this guy. He had jettisoned countless opportunities to develop strong servants of the Lord because he had reduced everything to a set little formula.

My Goal in the coming posts is to share with you some of the strongest answers to the why? questions that I have found over the last fifteen years of this journey. I can truly say that these reasons have exhilarated my Christian life and ministry in one of the hardest fields on the planet (Italia).

1. I might mention that this first post of the series is directed more toward pastors and small group leaders, but the principles that will follow will be more for everybody. [back]
2. I hear a number of guys using the punchy little phrase "nickels & noses" to speak of spiritual success referring to attendance and finances in or around their ministries. This, in my opinion, is a hollowed-out approach to people. Most likely in these cases, it will be hard to find authentic, accountable community-life around these ministries. Again, in my opinion, this is equal to sour grapes; you get the skin and the flesh - but the sweetness and rich flavor of the grape just doesn’t taste right because something’s missing. [back]