Spiritual Growth

Every Wednesday and Thursday nights, small groups gather in local homes to fulfill the mission statement of our church, “To glorify God by helping people move toward Christ.”

What are the benefits and blessings of these small groups?

1. Growing and producing leaders in the church.

Each small group have men who lead and are being trained to lead through monthly meetings. The goal is to reproduce each group, and that begins with leadership training. This year, these men have studied and discussed a book on text-driven preaching. They will have an opportunity to put into practice what they have learned by preaching on Sunday nights in 2024. Wow!

2. Children learning to pray.

One of the best facets of small group is passionate, expectant prayer. Some of our groups have children attending, and we have seen the impact upon them by their listening to the adults pray. The children are praying in the small group gatherings, and it has spilled over into our Sunday night corporate prayer meetings. One group has a Bible study for the kids during the adults’ study, but the children are always included in prayer meeting. They hear the adults share concerns, praises, and answers to prayer. They are developing a burden for the lost as they hear others crying out for the salvation of their loved ones, friends and neighbors. Wow!

3. Honest, transparent living before others in the group.

As the group grows in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:18), as well as the fulfillment of the biblical one another’s, there is a level of transparency and honesty that really doesn’t happen on Sunday mornings in the pew. The exhortation and encouragement that comes is spiritually healthy and builds strong, biblical community that develops over time. How wonderful to hear someone share their hurts, burdens, desires, sins, and then receive a compassionate response grounded in the Word for the glory of God! Wow!

Since COVID and largely in part because of the beneficial changes that came from that most interesting time, small groups have abundantly aided the health of our church! These gatherings are a highlight of each week. To God is all glory! Wow!

*Wednesday WOW is written to remind us, especially pastors, that our transcendent, omnipotent, loving, sovereign God is working today in our lives in thousands of ways. The WOW is God, not the size of the work! How have you seen Him at work in your life today?

This picture says so much! We found these “cute” onesies in a religious bookstore this week. Others said, “Itty bitty _________” (fill-in-the-blank with a church denomination).

I think I understand the “cute” intent of the maker and store owner, but how many of us as true, born-again believers could wear this outfit?

Itty-bitty Christians . . .

Are satisfied to stay an infant when it comes to spiritual growth in the Word. Instead of totally immersing themselves in the daily personal intake of the Word (Psalm 119; Ephesians 4:11-16; 5:18-20), a quick dose of an internet devotional or a religious song on Sirius XM on the way to work suffices. The outcome is an itty-bitty faith in an itty-bitty God.
Are satisfied to stay an infant with it comes to living out all of God’s purposes for you in the body of Christ, the local church (Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 3:10; 4:11 – 6:20). Sunday is the Lord’s Day all day, not just for a couple of hours for me to pick and choose how I want to worship. The outcome is itty-bitty participation, connection, transparency, honesty, accountability, body-life, service, praise, fellowship, prayer, evangelism/discipleship, one-another’s, exaltation of Christ, etc. As one lady told me about her church experience, “I like going to the early service because I can go, get it done, and go about my day.”
Are satisfied wearing a “onesie” because life is about them instead of glorifying God and serving others. (Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 12:9-21; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 1:15-18) The outcome is an itty-bitty Christian who seldom makes an impact on the world for Christ.
Are satisfied being a nominal Christian rather than a genuine, all-out disciple of Christ. Read Luke 14:25-27. Does that passage describe an itty-bitty Christian wearing a “onesie”?

Believers, we are exhorted to grow, to mature in the faith. Take heed to the following and let’s cast off our itty-bitty Christianity!

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. (1 Corinthians 14:20).

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:17-18)

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Ephesians 4:13-15)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (Hebrews 5:12-13)