A group without a purpose is a social club. No matter what you call the group, if the group is not given a purpose, it will drift into being merely a social club or clique. Therefore, this begs the question—how does a group find purpose? Well, a group finds purpose in its core tasks. At Text-Driven Ministries, we believe there are three core tasks for a church small group: teaching, reaching, and serving. Therefore, the various small groups of a local church should have all three of these tasks in order to have purpose and function biblically.
The Threefold Tasks
These three core tasks give every member of a small group an understanding of what they should be doing. A brief history of the small group movement is necessary to understand why we have adopted these three specific core tasks.
The modern small group movement begins with the Sunday School movement. While many different groups have practiced an additional time of teaching and fellowship in churches through the ages, the 18th-century Sunday School movement formalized this as a norm in Christian churches. The Sunday School method of small groups dates back to a period when the Sunday School class was actually a time of learning how to read and write. With the rise of literacy among Americans, the Sunday School class became a period of teaching Scripture and doctrine. The emphasis on teaching was a good thing, but in many places, the Sunday School class became a church within a church, the Sunday School teacher a mini-pastor, and there was a lack of fellowship and community. The life group model arose as somewhat of a reaction to the problems of the Sunday School class. Life groups focused on community and fellowship, sometimes to the neglect of teaching. Life groups, with its focus on community, would have deficiencies that needed to be addressed. This would lead to the rise of what is called "D-groups." D-groups, or discipleship groups, would be smaller groups with the focus on members helping each other live out the Christian life. If historical trends are deterministic, then D-groups will eventually have a deficiency that needs to be corrected or supplemented.
The small group ministry of many churches has a revolving door of trying to figure out how to address the deficiencies that keep arising. Our goal isn't to tell you what "style" of small groups is best, but rather to help you be Text-Driven, being doctrinally faithful and distinctly Baptist. We believe that instead of trends and movements determining how a church does small groups, these three core tasks—teaching, reaching, and serving—should. The three core tasks stop the revolving door. These tasks are taken from the good of every model of small group and are malleable to the "style" of small group any church uses.
These specific core tasks are applied to a small group because they give the small group a holistic purpose. The task of teaching can be expanded to the task of teaching and learning. A small group, like the Sunday School class, should be a place where the Christian education of church members is supplemented. A small group needs a skilled teacher and learners who desire to grow in their knowledge of the word of God. The small group needs education.
However, teaching and learning only make up part of the spiritual development of church members. The task of serving comes alongside the task of teaching to provide a more holistic purpose. The task of serving can be explained by the concept of intentional community and fellowship, like the life group model. The small group should be a place of deep friendships, not merely acquaintanceships. The members of the small groups should bear each other's burdens, including spiritual, emotional, and physical burdens. The task of service is not serving those outside the group, but inside the group. This is where life happens. The small group setting must have inreach.
Yet even these two tasks do not provide a holistic purpose. The last leg of the stool is reaching. The task of reaching is where the small group is mobilized to live out the Christian life, specifically in the act of evangelism, like the D-group. The small group plans and executes evangelism outreaches to share the gospel with the lost. The small group must have outreach.
The beauty of the three core tasks of small groups—teaching, reaching, and serving—is that every spiritual gift found in Romans 12 can be active in the small group. While the different models of small groups emphasize one or two specific Spiritual gifts over the rest, the three core tasks need every Spiritual gift. The gifts of teaching and exhortation are necessary for the teaching task. The gifts of mercy, service, and giving are necessary for the serving task. The gifts of prophecy and administration are necessary for the reaching task. When every small group, functioning as an auxiliary of the church, focuses on these three core tasks, they will develop church members' spiritual gifts. When church members' spiritual gifts are developed at the small group level, they can be the most effective at the church level.
As introduced in last week's article, the small group will fulfill its function and purpose when the formula for the teaching-learning process is followed. The three core tasks address the factors of the teacher, the learner, the unstated curriculum, and the non-physical environment. The task of teaching obviously relates to the teacher and learner aspect. The task of reaching relates to the unstated curriculum, as the small group learns the necessity of evangelism through the emphasis on outreach. The task of serving relates to the environment because when a small group serves each other, a caring environment is created. The three core tasks make up essential aspects to facilitate the teaching-learning process.
Conclusion
In the following podcast episodes and text-driven articles, application of each of the three core tasks will be provided. In the coming weeks, we will answer the question, "How do we see this threefold function or tasks lived out—practically?" In these episodes and articles, we will give recommendations that may be helpful to you and your local church.
Written by Klayton Carson
You can listen to the Text-Driven Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at www.textdriven.org/podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday, just in time for your morning commute.
