Community groups. Home groups. House groups. Pastoral care groups. Fellowship groups. Small groups. The names go on and on. Most churches have them and they aren’t biblically prescribed so whatever you call them it is fair to ask, what are they here for?

Before I go on to answer that, it is worth just landing on that ‘not biblically prescribed’ thing a moment. I have written previously on this. Home groups (or your preferred nomenclature) are not in scripture. They are not biblically required and I don’t think we have any business mandating things that the bible doesn’t. At the same time, though not mandated, I do think they are a more-helpful-than-not means of achieving some specifically biblical things. I encourage our people to go because I think they will be better served than not by attending. But despite what you may hear in some quarters, it is right to acknowledge Jesus doesn’t mandate them and nor should we.

So, what are they for? In what way are they helpful? Why do I encourage them even if I wouldn’t mandate them? Here are some reasons.

Fellowship

Sunday is the flagship mandated meeting of God’s people. The weekly gathering of the local church is the thing that Jesus tells his people not to forsake. Our primary means of teaching and fellowship will happen here.

However, as good as Sunday is, developing relationships exclusively at Sunday meetings is not easy. It can be helpful to have other, smaller groups in which we can get to know others members of the church family. Home groups helpfully fill this space and allow friendships and fellowship to develop in a smaller more relaxed setting.

Teaching

Again, the principal means of discipleship and bible input happens on a Sunday. The weekly preaching of the Word and the various other elements of the service operating in response to it are the principal means of discipleship for the church.

At the same time, different people will respond best to different kinds of teaching. For every person who responds excellently to direct formal preaching, there are others who prefer socratic questions and others still who like to think through matters in discussion. When it comes to teaching, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Home groups can help to provide a different format of teaching to supplement and enhance what we hear on a Sunday and may speak more helpfully to different groups in the church.

Questions

It is also important in the life of the church for there to be space to ask questions. This may be clarifying what we hear in sermons, it may be raising new things that we want to understand or what have you. But there needs to be some space where people can raise questions and seek to have them answered. Home groups can similarly provide this sort of a forum for people.

Prayer

Sunday meetings of course include prayer. There may be formal led prayers or open prayers. There may be specific prayers of confession and intercession or more generic prayers centred on whatever was drawn out of the word. Clearly prayer will happen on a Sunday.

At the same time, there are things that many would not wish to share in the middle of a public meeting. Similarly, there are things that we may not feel appropriate to anounce to a whole church full of people (including some outsiders). It can be helpful to have spaces where prayer requests and needs can be shared in smaller groups with trusted people without it being anounced to all and sundry. Home groups can provide a helpful space in which this can happen.

There are other forums in which all the above might happen. I don’t present home groups as the only space in which these things can take place. I also recognise that you might think separate forums for all these things to happen might be better than one catch all. As I mentioned above, home groups are not biblically prescribed so there is no compulsion if you think other ways might be better ways. Nevertheless, it is my view that home groups are a faithful way of achieving some specifically biblical ends. They are one means of accomplishing all the things above and many churches have found them a helpful addition to their discipleship.