The key components of a healthy celebration service are: ministry teams (see Serve), a welcoming atmosphere, inspiring praise, an irresistible vision, and transforming teaching.
WELCOMING ATMOSPHERE
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INSPIRING PRAISE
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IRRESISTABLE VISION
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TRANSFORMING TEACHING
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I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD.” Psalm 122:1
Before you go, here is a question worth thinking about. How often did the individual New Testament groups gather together for a big meeting? The answer is surprising. Rather than hold a big meeting every week, the various small groups meet as one large gathering as needed. They only assembled together for special occasions, like when a prominent person or an Apostle would visit.
Author and missionary Brian Hogan says it was his experience that the more often smaller groups in his movement gathered together for large meetings, the more it actually slowed the numerical growth and spiritual momentum of the ministry. Small groups stopped growing in proportion to the regularity of large group meetings. In his case, regular large gatherings actually hindered rather than helped the spread of the gospel.
His reasoning? "It was…easier to come and be a part of an audience than to enter a home and be discipled by those who knew you well…" When he decided to cancel the weekly large group meetings and return to a strategy driven by small groups, the movement resumed its growth and the gospel spread. In his words, "The fruit of this drastic action was dramatic. Within a couple of weeks, all the [small] groups needed to multiply as they were all too big. The new believers were taught to obey Jesus, and new life flushed through the arteries of the Body."1
Canceling or lessening the frequency of weekly celebration services is not a practical reality for most existing churches. However, it may be an issue worth exploring for church planters or ministries not obligated to weekly big group meetings. A healthy small group ministry, may be negatively impacted by adding weekly large group celebrations. This issue points out that the real engine of the local church is not Gather events but Grow groups. Because the gospel is best understood through small group meetings, not necessarily the weekly large group celebration.
What options do you have to align with this principle?
Author and missionary Brian Hogan says it was his experience that the more often smaller groups in his movement gathered together for large meetings, the more it actually slowed the numerical growth and spiritual momentum of the ministry. Small groups stopped growing in proportion to the regularity of large group meetings. In his case, regular large gatherings actually hindered rather than helped the spread of the gospel.
His reasoning? "It was…easier to come and be a part of an audience than to enter a home and be discipled by those who knew you well…" When he decided to cancel the weekly large group meetings and return to a strategy driven by small groups, the movement resumed its growth and the gospel spread. In his words, "The fruit of this drastic action was dramatic. Within a couple of weeks, all the [small] groups needed to multiply as they were all too big. The new believers were taught to obey Jesus, and new life flushed through the arteries of the Body."1
Canceling or lessening the frequency of weekly celebration services is not a practical reality for most existing churches. However, it may be an issue worth exploring for church planters or ministries not obligated to weekly big group meetings. A healthy small group ministry, may be negatively impacted by adding weekly large group celebrations. This issue points out that the real engine of the local church is not Gather events but Grow groups. Because the gospel is best understood through small group meetings, not necessarily the weekly large group celebration.
What options do you have to align with this principle?
- Brian Hogan, There's A Sheep in my Bathtub. Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement (Bayside, CA, Asteroidea Books, 2008) 125 Kindle